Days That Shook the World (2003) s01e13 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR: With the arrival
of the jet age in the mid-1940s,
speeds once only dreamed of
became a reality.
Two extraordinary days
20 years apart stand out.
Chuck Yeager's first supersonic flight
and Donald Campbell's attempt to become
the fastest man on water.
This is a dramatisation of events
as they happened,
on two days that shook the world.
It is 1947.
The Arab-Israeli War is about to start
A UFO has supposedly crashed at Roswell
India has just won independence
from Britain.
And far out in the Mojave Desert
of California,
one man is about to pit his wits
against a terrifying force
that has already claimed the lives
of many of his friends.
His name is Charles Elwood Yeager,
but everyone knows him simply as Chuck.
Born in the backwoods of West Virginia,
Yeager is a maverick,
a wild hillbilly turned fighter ace,
credited with shooting down
more than a dozen enemy aircraft
during World War Two.
Yeager is one of the finest pilots
in the US Army Air Force.
But he is about to face the greatest
challenge of his life.
Today, he will strap himself into
a 31-foot rocket powered plane,
and attempt to fly faster
than any man before,
faster than the speed of sound.
High above the desert is the wilderness
of sky that Yeager loves to call
"- The wild blue yonder."
But in the violent dogfights
of World War Two,
many pilots were not killed
by enemy fire,
but by a terrifying force of nature
that lurked in the sky
that Yeager loves.
"Enemy pilots
dived for their lives in dogfights.
"Sometimes, they never did pull out
and ploughed right into the ground.
"More than once,
I almost followed them in.
"Diving at more than 500 miles per hour,
"my Mustang began to shake violently
and my controls froze.
I nearly bent that damn stick
straining to pull out."
NARRATOR: Scientists calculated
that this buffeting in power-dives
would peak at Mach 1,
760 miles per hour,
the speed of sound.
The phenomenon became known
as the sound barrier,
a wall of turbulent air that would smash
any aeroplane that tried to pierce it
Now, with the arrival
of new jet technology,
speeds approaching Mach 1
have suddenly become possible.
The enormous tactical advantage
of one day
breaking through the sound barrier,
and flying faster
than the speed of sound,
is now the ultimate ambition
of the military.
And, for the past four months,
Yeager has been working at great risk
and in top secret
on America's project to become
the first nation to go supersonic.
Yeager's wife Glennis drives him
to the top-secret Muroc Airbase.
Despite only just
scraping through high school,
Yeager has been selected ahead of
other more qualified test pilots
because of his uncanny ability
to keep cool
during the moments of extreme danger
that fill his dally routine.
Glennis knows only a little
of what he is doing,
and has learned it's better not to ask.
I really don't know why Chuck
appealed to me so much.
"I dated a few soldiers,
but never a fighter pilot.
"But also, I sensed he was a very strong
and determined person.
"A poor boy,
who had started with nothing,
rand would show the world
what he was really made of-"
NARRATOR: The formidable plane
that Yeager will fly today
will test him to the limit
The Bell XS-1 aircraft,
"X" for experimental,
"s" for supersonic
and the first of its kind to be flown.
The XS-1 has been built
to government contract
at a cost of over four million dollars.
Based on the streamlined shape
of a .5 calibre bullet,
the plane has a fearsome engine
nicknamed Black Betsy.
Its performance is straight out
of Buck Rogers.
Betsy can push the aircraft up
into the outer limits of the atmosphere
at a rate of 20,000 feet per minute,
just as long as its highly volatile
fuel doesn't explode on ignition,
and blow the aircraft and pilot
into the middle of the next century.
The X-1 team meet for breakfast.
MAN: Looks like your friend Slick's
in here again.
NARRATOR: For months they have lived
and breathed the project,
but they have little support
from anybody else on the airbase.
Yeager knows that most think the X-1
is little more
than a hugely expensive joke.
to put me on that plane?
A thousand dollars.
"Practically, nobody at Muroc
gives us any chance of success."
"There are only 13 of us on the project,"
"and we were off by ourselves
at the far end of the airbase."
I didn't have to be a genius
to figure out that they were putting
"plenty of distance between
their own hides and us"
"to see whether or not the only thing
I'd break was my own precious neck."
NARRATOR: Yeager has brought two of his
closest friends onto the project.
Captain jack Ridley,
an Army Air Corps engineer,
has been working on vital modifications
to the X-1's design.
Ridley is the only man Yeager trusts
with his life
Bob Hoover is backup X-1 test pilot.
But he knows he will only
get to fly the X-1
if disaster strikes for his friend.
The only civilian on the team
is Dick Frost, Bell's chief engineer.
He's been the driving force
behind the X-1 programme
since it began in 1945.
"Yeager, Ridley and Hoover
arrived at Muroc in mid-July."
"Hoover was a happy-go-lucky stick
and rudder man. Hell of a good pilot."
"But Chuck Yeager was all test pilot."
"He was intent and serious."
"There was a certain sceptical look
in his eyes,"
"probably from the feeling that people
looked down on him"
"because he lacked their education
and background."
"But, by God, he'd show them."
NARRATOR: Preparations begin
for today's flight
The X-1 is towed to the fuel depot.
As with all his previous aircraft,
Yeager has named the X-1 after his wife.
"Chuck purposely hadn't told me
that he named the plane
"Glamorous Glennis,
but there it was, written on the nose.
"He did that on his Mustang in England.
"But this was in important research
aeroplane and I was very surprised.
"He said,
"You're my good luck charm, hon.
"Any aeroplane I name after you
always brings me home."
NARRATOR: Alone in his office,
Jack Ridley checks and rechecks
his calculations
for Yeager's next flight
The X-1 has been radically modified,
according to his design.
Today's flight will put
his theory to the test.
"The X-1 was controlled in the
same way as a conventional plane,"
"with elevators hinged on the tailplane
operated for climb or descend."
"On every flight,
Chuck had flown faster and faster,"
"but at speeds over 600 miles per hour,"
“turbulence caused sudden
and violent pitching
"sending the aircraft out of control"
I hoped I'd come up with a solution.
"We added a motor so that a small
but critical correction could be made"
"to the angle of the X-E’s entire
tailplane during flight."
NARRATOR: If Ridley's calculations
are correct,
his modification will keep
the aircraft stable
as it flies into the sound barrier.
But if he is wrong,
the tailplane could be torn off,
sending the X-1 and his friend Yeager
spinning into the Earth.
At the fuelling depot.
the X-7 is prepared for flight
It is filled with over 600 gallons
of a highly explosive mixture
of liquid oxygen and alcohol
The liquid oxygen is stored
at a temperature
of minus 290 degrees centigrade
in tanks right behind the pilot's seat
Fully laden, the X-1 weighs a massive
two and a half tons,
with nearly two-thirds of the weight
taken up by the fuel
Yeager knows he will effectively
be strapping himself
into a bomb with wings.
If he is unable to fire the engine
and has to land the aircraft
with the fuel still aboard,
the undercarriage will collapse
and Yeager and his plane
will be blown to pieces.
(CUTTING)
For ail the expense
of the flight programme,
Yeager has not even been issued
with a helmet for his test flight.
An old leather tank driver's helmet
is the only thing he can find
to protect his head.
But Yeager has another problem,
one that he has been keeping secret
for the last two days.
(AIRCRAFT PASSING)
A fall from a horse when out riding
has left him with two broken ribs.
BOB HOOVER: Thought you might need this.
What is this?
- That's your riding kit.
- My riding kit.
YEAGER: Oh, right, a carrot,
thank you, because
NARRATOR: Yeager and his friends
know that as soon
as his injury is made public,
he will be grounded.
Why did you get me glasses?
You know I see perfectly.
That's so you can see where the hell
you're going next time.
Ridley told me about your ribs.
Let's have a look at you.
Ridley told you.
- How's the horse doing?
- The horse?
You're something else.
Well, I hope you fly better
than you ride.
Well, you know I do,
50 you just watch my back.
NARRATOR: As the team continue
their preparations,
the X-1 is loaded into the belly
of a specially-adapted B-29 bomber.
As it holds fuel for just two and a half
minutes of powered flight
the X-1 will be carried up to
20,000 feet and dropped like a bomb.
The bomb bay doors
and most of the underside of the B-29,
have been cut away to accommodate
the rocket plane.
Even so, there is less than a foot
of clearance between the underside
of the fully laden X-1 and the ground.
And nobody wants to think
of the consequences
of an accident on takeoff,
when just a single bomb shackle
is holding two and a half tons
of volatile rocket fuel
inches from the runway.
(ALL CHATTERING)
Good morning, gentlemen.
ALL: Good morning, sir.
X-1 flight number nine coming up.
For today's flight,
temperature of 85 degrees
NARRATOR: Today's flight plan
is designed to test Ridley's
new tall configuration
up to a speed of Mach .95.
miles an hour. Runway six is
"If we were successful,
a flight at Mach 1, the speed of sound,"
"was just a few days away."
"But we knew Chuck's injury was gonna
make today's test flight"
"his last for a long time."
B-29 will take off and climb
to 15,000 feet
where they will be joined
by the chase aircraft,
continue to climb to 25,000 feet
for the test.
Hoover, you'll have accelerated
out ahead
NARRATOR: Frost will fly a chase plane
alongside the B-29
to monitor the X-1's drop
from the bomber.
Hoover will take up position
10 miles ahead
to provide Yeager with an aiming point,
as he rockets past
Cardenas, you wanna talk us through
the last five minutes prior to release?
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Okay, five minute warning, gentlemen.
NARRATOR: B-29 pilot, Bob Cardenas,
is the officer in charge of the flight.
He takes the team through
the launch protocol
Four minutes, pressurise the fuel tanks.
Three minutes, pressurise LOX tanks.
Two minutes, the tower's gonna announce
the test in progress.
One minute warning, clear to drop.
SENIOR OFFICER: Yeager,
particularly monitor
the elevator effectiveness as you
go through .94 Mach.
The engineers think that
that's really a critical point.
And don't go faster than that
unless you're really confident
that you can handle it.
Gentlemen, that completes the briefing.
Are there any questions?
- Have a good flight.
- Thank you, sir.
Set them up, boys. Let's go fly.
"Ridley's moving tall
really bolstered my morale"
"and I wanted to get
to that sound barrier."
I suppose there were advantages
in creeping up on Mach 1,
"but my vote was to stop screwing around
before we had some stupid accident"
"that could cost us not only a mission,
but the entire project."
(CHATTERING)
NARRATOR: The crew assemble,
ready to board the mother ship.
All other aircraft had been instructed
to land and clear the airspace
ready for the B-29's takeoff.
Cardenas Will take the pilot seat
with Ridley as co-pilot
But there is no seat
in the bomber for Yeager,
who has just a fruit box
to sit on during takeoff.
- Let's go fly, boys.
- All right, let's do it.
NARRATOR: As the crew
take up their positions,
final checks are made
on the mother ship.
At the edge of the runway,
radar-tracking equipment is set up
to monitor Yeager's flight.
Muroc Tower, Air Force eight-zero-zero
taxi instructions.
MAN ON RADIO: B-29 eight-zero-zero,
cleared runway six, seven miles an hour.
Roger, clear to line up and roll
- Clear to roll?
- She's all yours, Major.
NARRATOR: Far from the action,
Chuck's wife Glennis can only wait
until the flight is over.
The B-29 makes the slow climb
to altitude.
Cardenas checks in with the progress
of the chase planes.
B-29 eight-zero-zero,
Air Force two-zero-one.
Hoover, you guys on the way up?
Yeah, boy.
CARDENAS ON RADIO: Okay,
we're just closing 15,000 feet,
about 20 south of the lake,
making a right turn now
and heading south.
Roger.
NARRATOR: As the plane continues
climbing to 20,000 feel,
Ridley and Yeager head for
the freezing air of the bomb bay
and the entrance
to the cockpit of the X-1.
Only the streamlined shape of the X-1
lies between Yeager and the desert
8,000 feet below.
Dangling on a tiny platform,
Yeager battles against
the biting wind of the slipstream
to squeeze himself into the cockpit
Because of Yeager's broken ribs,
Ridley has cut a short length
of broomstick for him
to throw shut the heavy door latch
and seal himself inside the cockpit
Bob Hoover accelerates past the B-29
to take up his position ten miles ahead.
HOOVER ON RADIO: Air Force two-zero-one.
I see you now, buddy. Coming up to you.
Eight-zero-zero, five minute warning.
"There are at least a dozen ways
that X-1 can kill you,"
"so your concentration is total"
"I'd be flying higher,
around 45,000 feel"
rand faster
than any military pilot had yet flown.
"Anyone with brain cells
would have to wonder"
"what in hell he was doing
in such a situation,"
"strapped inside a live bomb that's
about to be dropped out of a bomb bay."
"But risks are the spice of life"
"and this is the kind of moment
a test pilot lives for."
"The butterflies are fluttering,"
"but you feed off fears as if
1's a high-energy candy bar."
It keeps you alert and focused.
"You count on experience, concentration
and instincts to pull you through."
"And luck. Without luck"
CARDENAS ON RADIO: Four minutes.
NARRATOR: Frost files
alongside the B-29,
ready to monitor the launch of the X-1.
Yeager, this is Frost
I'm in position to check your jettison.
Roger, fuel jettison in on.
Fuel jettison okay? Switch off.
LOX jettison and switch off are okay.
Roger, two minutes.
MAN ON RADIO: Muroc Air Force Base
to all aircraft.
All aircraft stay clear
of Muroc dry lake area.
Test in progress.
All aircraft on ground return
to parking positions.
Repeat, all aircraft stay clear.
B-29 eight-zero-zero to NACA radar,
Muroc tower, chase aircraft, one minute.
MAN ON RADIO: NACA radar to
Air Force B-29 eight-zero-zero.
You are clear to drop.
Yeager, this is Ridley. You all set?
Hell, yes. Let's get it over with.
- Remember those stabilizer settings.
- Roger.
Eight-zero-zero, here is your countdown.
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six
five, four, three, two, one.
Drop.
"The moment of truth."
"If you're gonna be blown up,
this is likely to be when."
"You light the first chamber.”"
YEAGER ON RADIO: Fire in four.
"Slammed back in your seat,
tremendous kick in the butt,"
"Nose up and hold on."
NARRATOR: Yeager begins to accelerate
towards his test speed of Mach .95.
YEAGER ON RADIO: Pressure's all normal
NARRATOR: With just one
rocket thruster firing,
he is already travelling at over
500 miles per hour.
"Climbing faster
than you can even think."
"You've never known such a feeling
of speed while pointing up to the sky."
"This beast's power is awesome."
NARRATOR: Suddenly, as the X-1 rockets
past 600 miles per hour,
it smashes into violent turbulence.
It's the moment of truth
for Ridley's calculations.
At Mach .95, Yeager makes the vital
adjustment to the tailplane.
There is no room for error.
YEAGER ON RADIO: Say, Ridley,
make a note here.
Elevator effectiveness regained.
Roger, noted.
NARRATOR: Ridley's tailplane
has worked. The test is over.
But not for Yeager, who keeps
on accelerating towards Mach 1.
YEAGER ON RADIO: Firing four.
"At 45,000 feet, where morning
resembles the beginning of dusk,"
"when you turn on the last
of the four chambers,"
"God, what a ride."
YEAGER ON RADIO: Mach .95.
.96,
.97,
.98,
.99
NARRATOR: Just as he hits the full
destructive force of the sound barrier,
Yeager disappears from sight
(SONIC BOOM)
For a moment, it seems Yeager is lost
(ENGINE ROARING)
YEAGER ON RADIO: Hey, Ridley.
Make another note here.
There's something wrong
with this Mach meter. It's gone screwy.
If it is, we'll fix it Personally,
I think you're seeing things.
I guess I am, Jack.
NARRATOR: At precisely 10:18,
on October 14, 1947,
Chuck Yeager has made history.
The first man to break through
the sound barrier.
His sonic boom, the world's first,
marking the beginning
of the supersonic age.
(TYPEWRITER CLACKING)
"The flight, in my report,
was kept secret for seven months."
"But when we went public,"
"the news made Yeager
the most famous pilot in the world."
(ALL CHATTERING)
You drink more and then you toast
I'm still living.
NARRATOR: Yeager and Ridley
continued to work
on the X project for nearly a decade
eventually taking their flights up to
nearly three times the speed of sound.
Yeager went on to help train the first
generation of astronauts,
and saw the X-1 programme culminate
in man landing on the moon.
It is 1967,
20 years after Yeager's
first supersonic flight
in swinging London, the Beatles
are about to release Sergeant Pepper.
America is just a year away
from putting a man on the moon.
In South Africa,
the first heart transplant
is about to be carried out.
And in the Lake District
of northern England,
one man is about to make a bid
to break the world water speed record.
In a cottage in the village of Coniston,
Donald Campbell,
world-famous record breaker,
sits playing a game of Russian Patience
watched by his old friend,
newspaperman Keith Harrison.
It's been over two months, Donald.
We've got to stop the Americans.
300 will do that.
- What about the backers?
- Backers? What backers?
Jet plane, jet boat,
doesn't really matter.
Once you're committed, you're committed.
Ace of Spades, Queen of Spades.
Those are the cards Mary Queen of Scots
drew right before she was beheaded.
Someone's for the chop.
Hope to God it's not me.
NARRATOR: Coniston Water,
the Lake District.
For nine gruelling weeks,
Campbell has been risking his neck
to get a new water speed record
in his jet-powered boat Bluebird.
It has been a battle against
appalling weather,
endless mechanical problems,
and with no sponsorship,
time is running out fast for Campbell
Already famous for pushing
a jet-powered car
to 400 miles per hour on land,
Campbell is obsessed with breaking
the 300-mile per hour barrier on water,
but in a world now dominated
by pop culture and the space race,
Campbell's old-fashioned values
appear out of date and out of style.
MALE REPORTER: If you break this record,
what does it prove?
I think perhaps, most important of all,
it still proves British leadership
in engineering terms.
And it does, I think,
also show the British,
when they make their minds up,
can jolly well overcome all obstacles
and achieve anything.
So, really, this is based on British
patriotism, as far as you're concerned.
We are all playing for a team, old boy.
We are all playing for the same team.
NARRATOR: Camped out on the banks
of the lake is John Lomax,
an amateur film maker from Liverpool
Over the last nine weeks,
he has used every spare penny he earns
as an engineering fitter
to capture Campbell's attempts on film.
Lomax has seen the lake
in all its moods,
violent one moment, placid the next
Like Campbell, he hopes that today
the surface will remain calm enough
for the attempt to be made.
"Donald Campbell was my hero
as far back as I could remember."
I loved his bulldog spirit
"He was keeping the flag
waving for Britain."
"Most of the lads
up where I came from in Liverpool"
"still believed in that kind of thing."
I wanted my film
to be a tribute to him.
"He reckoned
I might win a prize with it"
"One more trip back to Coniston,"
"and I reckon that I'd have
the film finished"
"and Donald Campbell
would have the record."
(CLOCK TICKING)
NARRATOR: Campbell wakes
well before dawn
in a small house he has rented
near Coniston Water.
He is all too aware of the risks
he is taking in Bluebird.
But pride and spiralling debts
give him no choice but to battle on.
Campbell knows that some are saying
that his attempt at 300 miles per hour
is little more than a death wish.
Ten years earlier, his home movies
had captured a time
when the stakes were not as high.
MALE REPORTER: New York, January, 1957.
A hectic week's business
and many discussions in an effort
to find a new lake on which to attack
the world's water speed record.
But, this is soon followed
by some lovely days in the Florida sun.
NARRATOR: Campbell was living
a jet-set lifestyle,
and record-breaking was part of the fun.
MALE REPORTER: It's St Patrick's Day,
and Nations and Campbell
open the ski show.
NARRATOR: After his first world record
in Bluebird in 1955,
Campbell was awarded the CBE.
His success attracted
captains of industry
and the Bluebird project
could count on corporate sponsorship.
Donald Campbell
was the man of the moment
MAN: 250, 260 - into the kilometre.
Still accelerating. 270, 275, 280.
NARRATOR: By 1964, Campbell had pushed
Bluebird to 276 miles per hour.
In the same year, he took the land speed
record at 400 miles per hour
in his jet-powered car
on Lake Eyre in Australia.
Holding both records
was the peak of his career.
He had found real happiness with his
third wife, cabaret singes, Tonia Bern.
The couple were the stars of the moment
He had the CBE and hoped to be knighted,
but the honour never came.
Now, in 1967, younger, trendier icons
have taken the spotlight
Campbell's land speed record
has been broken
by glamorous young American
Craig Breedlove.
The old school of record-breaking
is out of fashion.
Campbell's sponsors have deserted him.
His obsession
has all but destroyed his marriage.
He's going it alone at Coniston.
MALE REPORTER: How does it make you feel
to have to rely on the help of press men
even to launch Bluebird,
to man your boats and things like this?
Well, they are all jolly good,
willing helpers,
and it's the good, old
Battle of Britain, Dunkirk spirit.
There's a job to be done,
it's a man-sized job,
and everybody up here
with a heartbeat in the right place is,
you know, right behind it.
They've been up here
for an awful long time.
What is it costing a day,
every day you have to wait?
A lot too much.
Can you give us any idea
how long you can hold out?
Once you start on one of these
world's record attempts,
you're past the point of no return
the moment you start.
There is no going back.
(WHIRRING)
NARRATOR: Keith Harrison starts
the generator to light the boathouse.
Soon, the rest of Campbell's team
will arrive.
As a press reporter, Harrison
has followed all of Campbell's exploits
and is proud to be
an unofficial member of the team.
Although he knows Campbell's spirits
are at an all-time low,
his major concern is with the boat
"I'd seen the boat first time out
in all its glory in 1955,"
"and Donald like a grinning school boy
with a new toy."
"But the boat
I stood looking at that January morning"
"was a very different beast"
"Everything about it had changed."
"Donald now had nothing short
of a jet plane without wings."
"And today, he was planning
to push it right to the limit"
NARRATOR: In preparation
for the new attempt,
the boat has been fitted
with a far more powerful engine,
a Bristol Orpheus,
but using 1,000 lbs more thrust
than the original
(ENGINE WHIRRING)
At high speed, Bluebird is designed
to rise up on its floats
and skim across the water
with just 14-square inches of hull
in contact with the surface.
But the new engine
threw the boat out of balance,
and Bluebird refused to perform.
Sandbags, later replaced
by lead ballast,
were attached to the tall of the boat
it was enough to get Bluebird
skimming again.
But there is still a problem
with fuel supply to the jet.
More than once,
the engine has cut out under power.
Campbell cannot afford any more delay,
and has announced
that Bluebird is ready.
He just needs a break in the weather.
Campbell gets ready to leave
for Pier Cottage and Bluebird.
A deeply superstitious man,
he will take with him
his lucky mascot, Mr Woppit
and around his neck
he carries a St Christopher
given to him by his father,
the world-famous record breaker,
Sir Malcolm Campbell
in the last few weeks,
the newspapers have sniped at Donald,
accusing him of being no more
than a pale imitation of his father,
the legendary speed king.
He didn't want you to follow
in his footsteps, did he?
No, he did not.
Most and very emphatically, he did not.
Why didn't he want you to?
Well, I suppose better than anybody,
of course, he knew the risks
and I was his only son.
And why did you?
Possibly because I was his son.
NARRATOR: Born into a privileged world
and surrounded by fast cars
and record-breaking machines,
Donald was always going to be
his father's son.
Through the 1920s and '30s,
Malcolm Campbell
had the world at his feet,
and Donald always at his side.
A self-made man who let nothing
stand between him and his ambitions,
Sir Malcolm was the symbol of everything
England stood for between the wars.
He was the speed king in an age
where every record broken
was another feather in the cap
for the Empire.
MAN: Three cheers for
Sir Malcolm Campbell Hip, hip
ALL: Hurray!
- Hip, hip
- Hurray!
- Hip, hip
- Hurray!
Donald worshipped him.
But while Sir Malcolm was alive, there
was only room for one record breaker.
After Sir Malcolm's death in 1948,
Donald, who'd never raced a car
or boat before,
decided that
he could not let the Americans
take his father's records from Britain.
He vowed to keep the Bluebird name alive
and continue the Campbell dynasty.
extremely pleased.
It's now just a question of waiting
for a settled spell of weather,
so that we complete the trials
and possibly make the attempt
that we have to on the record itself.
Harrison checks the surface conditions
across the long stretch
of Coniston Water.
The lake is five and a quarter miles
long, one hundred and eighty feet deep,
and just half a mile wide.
Mountainous and exposed at one end
and wooded at the other,
conditions constantly change
on the surface.
Harrison has often heard Campbell call
the unpredictable waters "the bitch".
Today, a wind from the northwest sends
squalls and eddies across the water,
but the surface looks better
than it has for weeks.
Campbell will make his decision
as soon as he arrives.
CAMPBELL: When you go down
to the arena, you know,
you go down with your eyes open.
And when you go down into the arena,
you well know you're sometimes
likely to get your nose punched.
You do it with your eyes open,
you take the risks.
Of course you're under tension,
of course you're frightened,
everybody concerned is.
If they weren't,
you'd be very frightened of them.
But you keep these fears to yourself.
Campbell sets off
for the Bluebird launch site.
There he will assemble his team
and decide if today is the day.
CAMPBELL: I worshipped my father.
In 1935, I was a schoolboy
on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah
when he was the first man to reach 300,
And on that first run,
one of the Dunlop lyres burst
at 300 miles an hour as the car left
the measured mile.
And I will never forget seeing
the old man by the side of that car,
gaunt and silent
and I tried to talk to him.
And then suddenly I realised,
this was the wrong thing to do
because I was sure, in his own mind,
that he thought
that on his return run,
he was going to be killed.
But that didn't daunt him,
and it didn't in any way
affect his resolution.
What are you thinking, Skip?
Let's go for it.
Everyone to their stations.
In the boathouse,
John Lomax gets more shots for his film
as Campbell and his team,
prepare Bluebird for the water.
"There was Leo Villa,
Campbell's mechanic.
"They were always
straight with each other,
"but things were different that morning.
Campbell was on edge.
"He'd told Villa about the cards
he'd drawn the night before.
"Villa was like a father to Donald.
He'd been Sir Malcolm's mechanic
through the 20s and "30s"
rand had known Donald
since he was a child.
"But Villa believed"
"that either you took bad omens
100% seriously and packed it in,"
"or you forgot about them
and got on with it"
"Donald knew the choice was his."
I suppose after 64 days, anybody
would have just wanted it over with.
"But he looked very much on his own."
NARRATOR: On the opposite shore
of the lake,
the timekeepers set up their equipment.
Two sets of electrically-fired
chronometres will be triggered
as Bluebird enters and exits the course.
Under the rules for a record attempt,
Campbell must make two runs.
If his average speed on the course
is over 300 miles per hour,
the record will be his.
On a boat at the far end of the lake,
Harrison and a photographer
from his newspaper
are ready to watch the attempt
Harrison will monitor Campbell's radio
transmissions during the two runs.
With Bluebird's jet engine fuelled up
and ready to go, Campbell climbs aboard.
The boat is slowly winched down
the slipway and onto the lake.
"We'd been frozen to the bone for weeks.
We'd watched and waited"
"and hoped each day would be the day."
"Sometimes you couldn't help
but start to lose the faith."
"But each time I saw that boat slide
out onto the lake"
"and Campbell say, 'Command',"
"you could feel
the whole atmosphere change."
"And the minute Bluebird was fired up,
you knew why you were there,"
"and you wouldn't swap that experience
for anything in the world."
(CAMPBELL CHATTERING ON RADIO)
NARRATOR: Campbell heads out
into the middle of the lake
and lines up for the first timed run.
(CAMPBELL CHATTERING ON RADIO)
NARRATOR: Rather than join the press
on the lake to film the runs,
Lomax decides to wait alone on the pier.
He wants to be in prime position
when Campbell returns in triumph.
Clear to go.
Clear to go.
It's beginning to lift
It's moving very hard at 150.
NARRATOR: Campbell accelerates from
thirty to two hundred miles per hour
in just six seconds.
(CHATTERING ON RADIO)
NARRATOR: Accelerating hard past
250 miles per hour,
Campbell charges up to the first marker
and the timers are triggered.
MAN ON RADIO: Still holds. Still holds.
NARRATOR: In just five seconds,
he has covered the distance.
But Campbell doesn't peak
until he's further down the lake.
Untimed and out of sight
of the timekeepers,
he hits 320 miles per hour.
Even though he uses
a powerful water brake,
it still takes him nearly two miles
to slow down.
CAMPBELL ON RADIO:
Bruce, do you read me? Over.
Roger, skipper.
Tango, Tango, do you read? Over.
MAN ON RADIO: Tango to base,
Tango to base, standby.
NARRATOR: Everything hangs
on the timekeepers' calculations.
Two hundred and fifty miles per hour
is their baseline.
Campbell has gone through the course
at a plus 47,
297 miles per hour.
MAN ON RADIO: Tango to base,
message for skipper.
Plus 47, plus 47, plus 47.
NARRATOR: Now Campbell knows that
he only needs another 6 miles per hour
on the return run,
and the record will be his.
I'm starting to do the turn around now.
NARRATOR: He doesn't pause to refuel
and heads back down the lake.
Campbell accelerates hard, pitching over
the rough wake of his first run.
He wants to be at full speed
when he enters the course.
CAMPBELL ON RADIO: I'm going to try
another rush.
(CAMPBELL CHATTERING ON RADIO)
Full power.
Throttle full on.
I can't see.
NARRATOR: He hits 318 miles per hour
as he passes the first marker.
I can't see anything.
I've got the bows up.
I've gone!
MAN 1 ON RADIO: Hello, Tango to base,
Tango to base. Over.
MAN 2 ON RADIO: Base to Tango. Over.
Base to Tango. Over.
Tango to base, Tango to base.
- Complete accident, I'm afraid. Over.
- Roger. Details? Over.
No details as yet No details. Standby.
NARRATOR: The rescue boats rushed
to the scene.
But Bluebird has already sunk
beyond reach,
plummeting 140 feet down
to the bottom of the lake.
Floating wreckage
from the boat is recovered,
along with Campbell's empty helmet,
his socks, shoes, a glove,
his life jacket
and his lucky mascot Mr Woppit.
I remember Campbell
saying to the press,
"You know and I know why you are here."
"And then he nodded."
"But I, for one,
never wanted this ending."
I walked back up the pier,
I took a last shot of his car,
and I went home.
I had to phone my story in.
"I'd never wanted to listen
to those others"
"who always said
this was the inevitable end."
"But it was. He knew it"
"He'd crashed his jet-car once
and I remember him telling me,"
"I knew she was going.
I knew I was going."
"It was nearly half-a-minute after
I lost her that we were in the air."
"It was tremendously peaceful'"
"Today when I heard him say,
Tm going,"
"I knew those last few seconds
before the crash"
"were probably the most peaceful
in the life of Donald Campbell, hero."
NARRATOR: Campbell was awarded
the Queen's Commendation
for Brave Conduct
a month after his death.
John Lomax returned to film
Campbell's memorial
on the green in Coniston village.
Donald's mother, Lady Dorothy,
unveiled a simple memorial to her son.
(CAMPBELL SPEAKING)
NARRATOR: For more than 30 years,
there has been speculation
over the cause of Campbell's death.
Some said an object in the water
caused the crash.
But nothing floating would have been
heavy enough to cause the boat
to somersault.
Refuelling the boat would not have
affected its balance
and Campbell had sufficient
for the return run.
But Bluebird's engine had been plagued
by fuel supply problems,
cutting out completely
on two earlier occasions.
The accident was most likely
the result of fuel supply failure,
compounded by the pitching motion
from the wake of the previous run.
When the boat became airborne,
there is clearly no jet-thrust
seen against the water.
Campbell's boat, already unstable
and now robbed of forward thrust,
flipped backwards as it hit
the now impenetrable wall of air
before somersaulting back into the lake.
It is difficult to accept
that Donald Campbell
was carrying out a death wish.
The shock in his voice was far foo real
But tragically,
his premonition of suffering
the same fate as Mary Queen of Scots
was borne out.
When his remains were finally recovered
in May 2001,
it was clear that his head had taken
the full impact,
as Bluebird's cockpit
collapsed against the water.
MAN ON RADIO: Tango to base,
Tango to base.
Complete accident, I'm afraid. Over.